Artificial fuel.



' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER EDWIN TUCKER, or BIRMINGHAM, AND COLIN co'RY, or;

SWANSEA, ENGLAND.

ARTIFICIAL'FUEL.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent N 0. 700,389, dated May 20, 1902.

Application filed October 4,1901. Serial No. 77,572. (No specimens.)

To all wfwnt it may cmtcergnr Be it known that we, ALEXANDER ED IN TUCKER, a resident of Paradise street, in the city of Birmingham, and CQLIN CORY, a resident of 1 St. James G'ardens,Swansea, in the county of Glamorgan, England, subjects of the Kingof Great Britain and Ireland, have invented certain new and useful ImprovementsRelating t'o. Artificial Fuel, (for which we have filed an application in Great Britain, N 0. 4,830, hearing date March 7, 1.901,) of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to artificial or briquet fuel in which ground or finely-divided coal or other fuel is mixed with an agglutinant material whose purpose is to bind the particles together, thus enabling briq'uets to be produced therefrom. Many kinds'of agglutinant material have been proposed. Some of these--,as, for example, pitch -cause smoke to be produced apart from any which maybe due to the small fuel forming the base material of the briquets. This production of smoke is a serious disadvantage for some purposes. It is also important that artificial or briquet fuel should not, as with some produced by ex isting methods of manufacture,become friable and disintegrate during combustion, but re-Q main adherent till combustion of the whole mass is practically completed. This is especially important where the fuel has to be em ployed with forced draft.

I Briquet fuel suitable for manyservices can be obtained by the employment of an agglu tinant prepared from wheat and-other grain; but the briquets produced-with such an ag glutinant material, although free from theaforesaid smoke-[producingdifliculty, are not in all cases sufii'oiently waterproof when exposed to theatmosphere;

. 1rTh8 object of our nvention is-to produce an artificial orbriquet fuel free from. the smokeproducing difficulty which will be physically strong and practically'waterproof, so that it will stand exposure and not tend to become friable during combustion. I y

We have found that the pith or med ullary matter from certain palms orpalm-like plants possesses properties whichiespecially adapt it for use in the manufacture of artificial or briquet fuel. When a material of this char actor is moistened and raised to a tempera ture of aboutl00 centigrade, the mass be- 'comes gelatinized. 'lhis gelatinous product has the property-of being, when cold practically waterproof,so that the blocks or briquets of fuel in which it is employed asan ag lutinant will not disintegrate or be alfecte by ordinary exposure ti) rain-or to a damp atmosphere, while the said agglutinant will not increase the bituminous or smoky and ashy properties of the original fuel. Further, the

sago yielding palm or allied species of plants. I

We preferabl'y obtain the agglutinant by ,crushing the aforesaid in edulla'ry matter with or without separation of the coarse fibrous material co'ntainedtherein, or instead of specially preparing the agglutin nt directly from the'med'ullary matter, as a oresaid, we

soineti mles employ the ordinary sage-flour of commerce. -We macerate -the speeially-pre pared agglutinantmaterial or the sage-flour inwater and by heating the same obtain'a homogeneous emulsion, which we add to the crushed fuel, -or we add the desired percentage of the agglutinant in the dry state to the fuel. After intimate mixtu re of the fuel and its agglutinant we submit the'sanie to the action of heat or to heat and moisture, according-to'its'ifygroscopic state, to effectthe gelatini'zation of the agglutinant and consequent cohesion of the mass, which is then formed into blocks or briquets'in any suitable machine. ing of the crushed fuel and the agglutinant and the gelatiuization of the latter in a pug-" We preferably eifectthe mixair, according to the hygroscopic stale of the mixture. a r In cases where more than ordinary resistance to climatic action is desired we sometimes add to the mixture of fuel and agglutinant a small percentage of oleaginous matter, such as para'fiinoil, ozocerite, stearin, or

the like, H

Havinglhusdescribed our inventiom what we claim as new, and desiretosecure by Let- 1,, Blocks orbri'quets of artificial fuelconsisting in part of an, aggiutinant formed from the medullary in sitter of sage-yielding plan ts,

ns-set {oi-th L 2.- In biocksor'fbriqnets of artificial fuel,

the combination with crushed or finely-div'iddfjifeioflan agglutinant composed of the plants, andol'eaginous matter, as set forth.

In witness whereof we have'hereunto set 0 our hands in presence of two'lwitnesses.

' ALEXANDER EDWIN TUCKER. COLIN CORY. NVitnesses': W. SWINFEN CQTTRELL, HERBERT BROCKETT. 

